Porter
by SLegs
Summary: Porter and his brother, Nolan, share a dream; to become members of the Elite 4. This proves to be much more difficult than either could have imagined.
1. Prologue

The nineteen year old Porter looked around frantically. His eyes watered from the cold, his breathing was ragged and laboured. He wiped his eyes, and began moving forward once again. He was certain he was about to collapse, but he couldn't give up now. He had to find him.

But he was nowhere in sight. The summit of Mt. Silver was flat and roughly circular. It could hide nothing. The legendary trainer wasn't here. Were the stories even true? Had there ever even been an unbeatable trainer that spent his days _here,_ of all places? Now that he thought about it, it seemed absurd.

Porter fell to his knees, and yelled in between broken breaths.

Slaking let itself out of its Pokeball, and quickly checked its surroundings. When it realized that their reason for climbing this unforgiving mountain wasn't here, it also let out a frustrated roar.

Porter reached for Slaking's Pokeball and returned the beast back into it. He slowly tried to get up, but failed, and collapsed, landing on his elbows. Finally, he gave in and sunk into the thin layer of snow on the ground. He turned his head to the side, his cheek growing cold quickly from the snow. But he didn't care anymore.

He felt a tear run down his face. And then another. Porter was taken aback. He was crying. When was the last time he had cried? He couldn't remember. With everything that had happened in the past six years, he had always been either too naïve or too angry to cry.

And now here he was, bawling his eyes out like a child.

_I'm sorry,_ he thought to himself, while the world spun around him.

_I couldn't do it._ Darkness crept into his peripheral vision.

_I couldn't keep our promise. _Porter felt himself slip away, a strange sensation, as if he was floating. It was cold, yes, but he had never felt so relaxed before in his life.

_I'm sorry. _


	2. Chapter 1

Six year old Porter's eyes were wide and glued to the television screen, his mouth slightly agape. He was fascinated by the battle that was being shown.

Jumping around next to him was his eight year old brother, and polar opposite, Nolan. Nolan was punching the air and cheering loudly for the Gengar that was battling.

Holding tightly to Nolan was a Slakoth, a lazy sloth Pokemon, which had somehow wandered into Nolan's room a few months ago. Its arms were wrapped around Nolan's neck, and it bounced around as the boy jumped. It didn't seem to care, though.

The Gengar on the screen floated up high, dodging a wicked punch that the opposing Nidoking had thrown. Before the Nidoking could regain its balance, Gengar created a ball of dark energy in front of it, and let it fly, hitting its foe dead on. The Nidoking was thrown to the ground, and struggled to get back up.

"Hooooo-lee crap! Didja see that one, Port?" Nolan screeched excitedly. He hissed slightly because he had lost two teeth in the past week.

Porter just nodded, his eyes never leaving the screen.

"Nolan, stop using bad language!" The boy's mother yelled.

"Sorry mom!" Nolan yelled back, sounding anything but apologetic.

He jumped up onto the couch and continued cheering for the Gengar. After a fierce battle, the Nidoking finally fainted, and the Gengar stood proud.

"Ya-hooooooo!" Casper yelled as he jumped off the couch and plopped down next to Porter.

"Port! Isn't Gengar just the coolest!?"

Porter continued to stare at the screen, replaying the battle in his head.

"Uh, Port, you're sucking on your thumb again," Nolan said.

Porter finally snapped out of his trance, and quickly pulled his thumb out of his mouth. He felt his face burn from embarrassment. He was trying to stop, but he just couldn't. It always happened without him realizing.

"Oh, sorry," he said quietly.

"You don't gotta be sorry, Port! Don't worry about it, you'll stop soon enough," Nolan replied with a toothy smile.

Porter forgot about his embarrassment and smiled back. The Slakoth let go of Nolan's neck with one hand, and reached for Porter's head.

"It's Monday tomorrow, you boys have school. Get ready for bed, 'kay?" their mother called.

"Oookaaay!" Nolan yelled in response. "C'mon, Port, let's get into our pajamas," he said before running off.

"Get offa my head, Slakoth," Porter huffed quietly. He wrapped his head around the small creature's body, and pried it off.

After placing it on the couch, he walked after Nolan, worrying about the next day.

* * *

Porter could feel the raindrops drumming on his head. The hood of his raincoat was up, but he could still feel the dumb rain. It was a gray day, which was fitting, considering that the weekend was over.

His brother had practically dragged him out of bed, excited to see his friends again. Porter admired that about Nolan. Nolan could become friends with anyone and everyone, without even trying. Porter just didn't understand how. He always felt shy and uncomfortable around people he didn't know.

The only person he considered to be his friend was a girl named Piper. She was also shy, like Porter. Some of the meaner kids in the class bugged her because of her name, but Porter thought it was a great name. It started with a 'P', just like his, and even ended with 'er', exactly like his.

They had first met a few months ago, when he had seen saw her crying during recess. Being intrigued by her similarities with him, he decided to try and calm her down by asking her to go on the swing set with him. During that first meeting, that was all he said to her, and she didn't even say a word. Yet somehow, they began to have a competition to see who could swing higher.

Every recess from that day on, they were together. It upset Porter that she wasn't in his class, but he supposed recess was better than nothing.

"Port! Hurry up, Port, or we'll be late!" Nolan called from down the street.

How had he gotten so far ahead? Porter took off after him, while the rain continued to drum on his head.

* * *

_Five… four… _Porter counted in his head, staring at the ticking clock.

_ Three… two… one._

A bell went off, signalling the start of recess. The only part of school that Porter looked forward to.

He quickly packed his books and went to his locker.

"Hey Portly, going to see your _girlfriend_?" a kid named Robert laughed. His two friends laughed with them.

Porter heard them, but ignored them. They did this every day, and it only got worse if Porter reacted. So he had learned to ignore them. It was a stupid 'insult,' anyways. Why shouldn't he be friends with someone just because they're a girl? What a dumb thing to tease him about.

But they kept going on and on as Porter put his stuff away. They finally got to him, and he was just about to turn around and tell them just what he thought about them and they're stupidity, but someone beat him to it.

"You three _kids_ having fun being turd-faces?" it was Nolan. He put emphasis on 'kids,' as though he wasn't one. "How about you stop before you make someone who's _older _and _stronger_ than you mad?"

As silly as Porter thought Nolan sounded, it worked, and the three left quickly, muttering to themselves. Nolan just shot his toothy grin at Porter and gave him a thumbs-up, looking very proud of himself.

Porter smiled back, thankful for his brother. Nolan was always looking out for him. When he remembered that, it was one of the few things that gave him some confidence.

Porter put his rain boots on and exited the school to the playground. The sky had cleared up, so it wasn't raining anymore, thankfully. The ground was still wet, but that was fine with Porter.

He made his way to the swing set, tucked away in a secondary part of the playground. Sitting on the right swing was Piper, softly swaying back and forth.


End file.
